The ideal time to newsjack a story is right after it breaks but before too many additional stories have been written on the subject. Typically, this is the most difficult part – since all social media monitoring services depend on text based analysis to identify trends. If you are reliant on keywords and software engines to recommend opportunities; you will always be a step behind those that have already jacked the news from you!

Newsjacking needs a service to identify the groundswell of a breaking news story before public excitement or journalists/bloggers have saturated the media landscape. This is where Bit.ly’s new search engine, Realtime, has come to save the day. Rather than waiting for multiple articles/blogs/tweets to be written on a post to identify a groundswell, Realtime uses the click through data available through Bit.ly’s URL shortening service to identify which articles people are clicking on and sharing via social networks in REAL TIME (I couldn’t resist ).

The search engine is currently in private beta but you can request access if you currently have a Bit.ly account. When you first access Realtime the screen will default to show the most popular articles and the average clicks per minute associated with each one.

One can always click on the info icon to see a more detailed breakdown on the click through data over the past hour, minute or day for any given story. Individuals can even filter through bit.ly’s links by keyword, topic, location, domain and audience language to identify potential opportunities.

Once you have identified your groundswell, the next step is writing your article. Remember, time is of the essence, you are not only competing against every other PR professional and journalist, but against the general public’s interest! Once your story is written don’t think your work is all done – you still need to identify the influencers online to share your story. Using Cision’s Influencer Search you can quickly locate and target influencers by running keyword searches against their real-time social content ensuring that your story goes to the individuals who are actively engaging on the same content!